Reading 18th-century Philippine pastoral letters

IN the many years I spent studying book production in colonial Philippines, I deliberately skipped reading pastoral letters and sermons. I thought they were empty or boring comments on the Bible with little literary value and of no interest for the history of ideas. My bias against them was, again, a consequence of my ignorance about what those genres really are. But curiosity and patience help, and while working in a catalogue for the Archives of the University of Sto. Tomas, I forced myself to browse and read sermons and pastoral letters to do a proper description of the items.

That is how I came to know a very interesting figure named Pedro José Manuel Martínez de Arizala. Born in Madrid in 1690, he studied law and worked in several positions — as a professor even — until he was appointed oidor (judge) in Quito in 1720. Beginning in 1730 — he was already 40 years old — he requested several times to the king to be allowed to leave his civil duties and become a priest. His requests were rejected each time until he joined the Franciscan order in 1739 without royal permission. This news was unwelcome in Madrid, and Martínez de Arizala was subjected to a juicio de residencia, a legal procedure according to which the performance of a public servant is put under scrutiny to produce a final judgment. It seems nothing came of it, since by 1743 Martinez de Arizala had been appointed archbishop of Manila and adopted the name of Fr. Pedro de la Santísima Trinidad. The fact only three years had passed between his taking of the vows and his appointment clearly shows he was a very well-connected person. He held this high-ranking ecclesiastical position until his death in May 1755.